America! Where are your manners?

Today I watched a story on NBC Nightly News and was dumbfounded to see news reporters being reprimanded by Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s Press Secretary, for having their cells phones ringing during a briefing. Last week, NBC reporter David Gregory announced on Twitter that he would be Tweeting during the Correspondents’ Dinner. I Tweeted back that I thought that was beyond rude. Was that rude of me?

I tell you… I’ve had it. As my mom used to say when we were little, “I’ve had it up to my eye-teeth.” I’m not sure I know what eye-teeth are, but I knew my mom was a hair’s breath from snapping when she uttered that phrase. From surly customer service in retail stores to the unbelievably bad service extended by city and state workers who earn their pay checks from my tax dollars, manners and civility in this country have gone the way of white cotton gloves and the pillbox hat.

And while fashions are trending retro, I think it’s time manners made a come back, too. I want the elderly to be able to ride a city bus and not have to hear teenagers spout off-color epithets. I don't want to see one more senior stand up while young men sit and dare them to ask them to give up their seat. I want parents shopping in malls with their little children to know that it will be a G rated experience. Not one filled with folks slinging the “N” word around. I want to go into my neighborhood Staples store (yes, I’m calling you out, Staples) and not have the cashiers eating their lunch at the check-out stand.

So starting now I’m on a crusade to bring civility, decorum and considerate behavior back in fashion. Civility is the new Black!